


there were no misread signals

by reonjeons



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Misunderstandings, crying because norensung, flowerboy!jeno, jisung is a literal baby, photographer!renjun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:54:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23664967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reonjeons/pseuds/reonjeons
Summary: When he offered the small kid a lowly glow-in-the-dark Saturn sticker as an apology for bumping into him, Renjun didn't expect Jisung's adorable friendship as a 'thank you'.(Also, he never meant to have flirtatious intentions with the father, really.)
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Jeno
Comments: 23
Kudos: 308
Collections: noren fic fest round 1





	there were no misread signals

**Author's Note:**

> for prompt #105  
> 

Renjun thumbs at the sling of his camera.

“You better rest today since it’s your day-off,” Jaemin’s voice pierce right through Renjun’s ear, and he almost winced, “and eat actual food! Don’t forget to hydrate yourself, Junnie.”

Renjun rolls his eyes, even though he knows his friend could not see him, “Stop fussing, Na Jaemin. Do you think I’m a child?” He continues on walking along the sidewalk, eyeing the cars that pass by him, and the bustle in every building he sees. There’s quite less sun for today and more clouds. Perfect weather for a walk. Although the cacophony of the city doesn’t appear to be comforting. Renjun takes what he can get, anyways.

“That’s the point!” his shriek makes Renjun move his phone away from his ear, the static from the phone call makes Jaemin’s voice extra annoying, “You’re not a kid so why am I still reminding you to take care of yourself?”

Renjun halts his steps when he spots a bench by the street and decides to plop down, crossing a leg over the other. With a sigh, he answers, “Nana, calm down okay? I  _ am  _ taking care of myself very well, thank you.”

From the other side of the line, Renjun could make out the rustling of blankets. Jaemin must have slept in, today was their off day after all. “I trust you on that, Huang Renjun. Anyway—have you finished unpacking? I could come by and help—”

“Nana,” Renjun cuts him off, “you already came by to help the other day. And there’s not much left to unpack anyway, I can handle it.”

Jaemin blows a raspberry, “Of course you’d say that,” Renjun laughs at that, “You should decorate your apartment, Junnie.”

At the mention of it, the thought seemed welcoming to Renjun. Sure he did bring some of the old frames from his previous home, but it did less to his new apartment. His new walls were painted white and plain, and his furniture isn’t that appealing as well. With that, it didn’t take too much pondering on Renjun’s side to consider the idea. “I think I should.”

Cars pass by the street he was looking on, and as he sat by the bench, Renjun let himself take in the bustle of the urban neighborhood. His new apartment isn’t quite by the main highway, but it wasn’t a quiet neighborhood either. This street was still filled with business glamour and when he went out of his apartment building he could hail a taxi. It was really a jackpot place for Renjun, unlike his previous address.

“Maybe put at least a plant on your desk,” Jaemin giggles. Renjun knew he was partly teasing, but the latter actually considers the idea. Maybe a plant or two for his bedside table, or on his working desk, just to add a little bit of vibrancy among the plainness of his residence. 

Renjun hums, “I guess. That’s actually a nice idea.”

“Wow, great of you to actually consider my suggestions.”

Renjun scoffs, albeit playfully, “Don’t you have anything else to do but annoy me in the middle of the day?”

“Hey! You called me first!” Jaemin’s voice came out offended, to which Renjun only laughs at, “Whatever, I’m getting up now. Bye, loser.”

A bicycle passes, and Renjun’s eyes follow it, only for them to stop at a small one-story store across the street. 

By the glass windows of the store were stands of potted plants, while there are prettily arranged vines crawling at the legs of the shed. More pots are lined from below, blooms in different forms and colors. Next to the pots are stands of buckets filled with flowers of kinds. A flower shop. Renjun raises an eyebrow in interest.

“Bye, Jaem.”

With that, the call gets disconnected and Renjun gets up to his feet to cross the street. He grips on the sling if his camera bag and mumbles to himself, “What a great timing.”

From up close, the scent of nature easily gets to Renjun’s nostrils. The different scents from the plants and flowers dance around him the moment he gets close to the glass door of the shop, and he could now make out more of its inside; more colors and pots. But it doesn’t make him move though. Renjun just stands there, hands clutching the camera slung around his neck, as he contemplates on impulse buying plants to decorate his new apartment. 

He could look around and pick a pretty plant, or maybe flowers to put in a vase. But that would mean committing himself to take good care of the plant if he wanted it to live in his apartment, and Renjun knew he wasn’t good with that. Maybe he could frame some of his landscape photographs and put them up in a wall instead of plants—but Renjun literally works at a gallery at the next street for that.

In the middle of his contemplation, Renjun’s thoughts get disturbed when a light force hits his legs from behind, followed by a small, almost inaudible, groan.

Renjun turns to look down at the culprit, only to be greeted by the sight of a small boy with a mop of thick black hair on his head, which he clutched, sitting on the gravel of the pathway. Renjun blinks and instantly squats down to help the small boy get up. He softly grips on the boy’s arm and spoke as softly as he could, “Are you okay?”

The small boy’s tightly shut eyes open to look up at Renjun. He had small eyes that blink rapidly, lips bunched in a small pout. His cheeks are bloated and slightly pink, and the ends of his thick bangs stop above his curved eyebrows, his hair in a straight bowl cut. Renjun’s insides coo, because the boy was too adorable. 

“Here, let me help you.” Renjun hoists up the kid to stand, and begins to dust off the dirt from his pants and his small Iron Man backpack. The boy dazedly lets Renjun pat him clean, and just follows his hands with his eyes. When he’s clean and steady, Renjun remains squatting to reach the boy’s eye level and offers him his—hopefully—sweetest smile, “I’m so sorry for bumping into you. Here—” Renjun pats his pockets. He was sure he had a few candies in his coat—or that’s what he initially thought. What Renjun pulls out instead is a glow-in-the-dark Saturn sticker, which might have gotten lost its way there upon unpacking. 

Renjun examines it close to his face, and when he did, the boy peered in his hand too, just as surprised and wondered as him. So he holds it up, “It’s a…special sticker.”  _ in a lack of a better word to call it,  _ “When it’s dark, it glows.”

The boy’s eyes immediately light up upon understanding the last statement, lips forming in a small, endearing ‘o’ as he gasped. Renjun is  _ endeared _ . He flattens the sticker on one palm, and cups the other over it. This way, the sticker glows in green, the shape of planet Saturn drawn over Renjun’s palm.

When he holds it closer to his eyes, there is another gasp coming from the boy, “Wow.” Renjun nods at that, “It’s really pretty.”

Renjun nods eagerly, and hands it to the boy, “It is. You can stick it in your bedroom wall and it will help you to sleep.”

“It will?” the boy says in utter wonder, as if doubtful of Renjun’s words. But his actions betray his words though, because he reaches out his stubby little fingers and takes the sticker in his own hands. Renjun feels giddy at the way his own hand is double the size of the boy’s.

Renjun nods eagerly to convince the boy, which didn’t take that much because he was totally convinced. 

“Say thank you, Jisung-ah.”

Renjun almost jumps at the voice. He immediately stands straight to look behind him where it came from, and is met with a broad chest almost touching the tip of his nose. The voice chuckles, and the chest steps back in equal surprise. “Oh—I’m sorry.”

The way Renjun had to look at the person through his lashes made him realize that this—man, was half a head taller than him. And that he was really,  _ really  _ cute and so much Renjun’s type. 

The guy had a sharp outline of his face—chiseled jaw and a prominent nose line, cheekbones high and thin lips that were curled into a soft smile. Sharp features, but a soft glint in his eyes. Renjun blinks. It was a face fit for a staring party. Before he could stay staring at the man and admire his ridiculously perfect looks, Good Looking Guy bends down to carry the boy—Jisung, Renjun assumes—in his arms. 

“Thank you, stranger,” Jisung gives him a shy grin, “I will use it well.”

With the child’s attention on him, Renjun snaps out of his daze and smiles at Jisung, his hand instinctively coming up to delicately ruffle his soft hair, “You’re welcome, little guy.”

With one last smile, Jisung turns away to play with the sticker in his hands in curiosity.

Renjun remains standing. He was contemplating whether to run off or initiate small talk with Good Looking Guy right in front of him holding a small boy. With a gulp, he decides to return the guy’s polite smile with his own. Which he hopes doesn’t look crooked. How do you exactly act on awkward situations around attractive boys that’s the ideal man of your daydreams at the same time?

“Well,” the man starts off. His smile doesn’t falter, and Renjun admires the guy for taking control of the situation, “Welcome. Can I help you?”

It’s when Renjun finally snaps out of his thoughts. Conversing with a cute guy while undressing him with his eyes was worthy of Jaemin’s teasing. So he straightened his back and tried to look as beaming as he could muster.

“Y-Yes!” It almost sounded like a squeak, Renjun clears his throat, “I’m, uh, well—I don’t know a thing about plants. I wanted to decorate my apartment with it but I don’t have a lot of time to take care of it.”

The guy—which now Renjun had assumed was the clerk of the store—nods, and leads Renjun past the glass doors with a wind chime that tinkles above, still with Jisung in his arms.

From where Renjun follows him behind, his legs appear long and slender, and his back is so broad that Renjun wants to run a hand across it—

“If you want a low-maintenance plant indoors, I would suggest you get succulents.” The guy says. Renjun watched as he bent down to put the still-distracted Jisung back on his little feet, and caressed the kid’s hair with his hand. And he catches the way the sunlight beams through the windows of the store and directly to the metal band around the guy’s ring finger which glints as if to mock Renjun for having intentions with him. The blush in his neck cools down and was replaced with a stupid punch in the gut within a second.

He couldn’t believe he was plotting a flirting course in his head with a married man. A father, at that. Renjun was pretty sure this was Jisung’s father. He pouts.

The guy turns to him again, Renjun earns his second flinch, “We have a lot of variations here.” 

The sentence ends with him leading Renjun to one of the store’s corners, where stalls of small potted plants were displayed. Renjun actually puts his attention to the pots, and scans the display, scrutinizing the petite succulents earnestly. They don’t vary much in color, only ranging from greens to purples and browns, very befitting to Renjun’s minimalist apartment. 

“Succulents can be watered once a week, and they don’t need to be exposed to so much sunlight, so it wouldn’t take too much of your time to look after them,” the man beside him says. Renjun is hyper aware of the man’s presence beside him, and that their arms are touching, but he continues to keep his act on being invested on what succulent he has to get. “They’re perfect to decorate your desks and shelves.”

This time, their arms brush. The action sends a jolt through Renjun’s arm and he snaps his neck to look up at the man, who only had a bright and polite smile in his lips. And his eyes too, god, they smile too. Renjun gulps, and clumsily steps backward. Too bad the shelves don’t crash down on them. Cute Guy would have saved him with an arm around his waist. 

What happens instead, is that Renjun’s cheeks flushed, and he becomes flustered. Damn, how could he feel so much to a guy whose name Renjun didn’t even get to ask.

Oh. His  _ name.  _ How was he going to ask for his name without sounding creepy. 

“I-I think,” Renjun composes himself, “I’ll have to go back here next time. I still don’t know what to get.” Heavy in Renjun’s tongue, his words felt like an excuse to visit the store next time.

But the guy just flashed him with another of his international award-winning smiles, “That’s okay. See you next time…”

Renjun blinks. It takes him a few to realize that the guy was asking for a name to address him with. “Oh! Um, it’s Renjun.”

Cute Guy nods, “See you next time, Renjun.” And Renjun thought that was the last of it, but the guy’s face suddenly contorted into a small face of surprise, before he rushed to add, “I’m Jeno, by the way.”

Turns out Renjun didn’t need to ask for his name. 

Renjun’s lips split into a wide grin, unable to keep the jiggles of excitement in his insides anymore. “Bye, Jeno.”

But it was an all-too cheery voice that answered, “Bye!”

The sight of Jisung perched on the counter still holding the glow-in-the-dark sticker close to his chest, reminds Renjun that Jeno is married with a child. It sucks. The thought makes him deflate. But at least Jeno’s cute eyesmile was currently directed at him. And he was going back to see it again next time.

°•°•°○○°•°•°•

Honestly, the continuous flashing was beginning to hurt his eyes. And the green screen doesn’t help either, but Renjun lived off this job so he was required to do well in it. And Renjun is doing extremely well for a fresh graduate with a minimum of the required work experience. 

With a click of the shutter, Renjun sighs and pats down the annoyingly standing strands of hair of his current model. There was an ungraceful bloat in her long gown, so Renjun pats that down as well, before he goes back behind his camera and takes the shot. “Tilt your head to the right. That’s right—look right into the camera. Good.”

It’s after a few shots that Renjun finally gets a wrap of the photoshoot. Unsurprisingly, when he’s in the middle of fixing his equipment, Jaemin has already planted his ass on a plastic armchair playing whatever game on his phone that makes his eyebrows scrunch in utter concentration. Renjun would never understand his passion for Overwatch. 

Renjun finally calls his best friend over, his eyes begging to help him lug the equipment to Jaemin’s car. As usual, Jaemin relents and exits the game. 

“Ten says he needs you at the gallery,” is what Jaemin says when he gets close. Renjun takes one of the bags of his belongings while the other is taken by Jaemin, and they walk outside of the studio together.

“Yeah,” Renjun sighs in exasperation, “He called.” 

Jaemin, sensing the wariness in his voice, pokes Renjun’s temple teasingly, “Hey, look at you being booked and busy. If you get loaded, don’t forget to treat me to a fancy dinner!”

Renjun slaps his hand away, masking his chuckles with a fake annoyed whine, “You say that as if you’re not richer than me. You’re supposed to be the one who should treat me!”

Jaemin laughs in turn. The elevator door opens and Renjun is the first one to step inside. Jaemin beside him presses the button to the basement, and the doors close as he speaks, “Shut up. This is another job for you, right?”

The elevator whirrs as they are brought floors down. Renjun looks up to the floor numbers changing out of habit. “Yeah. This certain magazine needs a managing photographer. Ten wants me to try it out.”

Jaemin hums. Whatever he was going to say next was interrupted by the elevator doors opening with a ding. Then they’re stepping on the floors of the parking area. Luckily, Jaemin’s car is parked not-so far away. His equipment bag was starting to get heavier and he felt his arm almost go numb at the weight. The trunk gets opened, and they carefully put the bags down. 

“So,” Jaemin says as soon as Renjun plops down on the passenger seat, “how’s the married cute guy?”

Renjun groans and buries his face on his hand. He shouldn’t have told Jaemin about him almost flirting with Jeno, who was married and has a child. Since then, Jaemin had been teasing him for getting flustered over a married guy. The mere thought of it makes embarrassment crawl all over Renjun. “Just—shut up about it, Jaem.”

But Jaemin still laughs at his reaction as he drives. If Renjun didn’t want to live for more years he would have laid a punch on Jaemin’s smug face as he says, “Are you really that desperate to date, Junnie?”

“I’m not!” Renjun shrieks, “I didn’t know he was married until I saw the ring. And I thought he was about our age too, but he and Jisung also look alike by a lot in some angles.”

“He's our age? Are you sure he’s married?” Jaemin side-eyes him with a raised brow, “And with a five-year old son?”

“I’m pretty sure,” Renjun looks out the window. They were passing through the highway, and he watched buildings after buildings whizz past his sight as they drove away. He had too much evidence that proves he was right about this, that’s why he was avoiding the flower shop by his apartment complex for the past couple of days, despite being set on visiting there again before. “Drop me off at home please. I won’t be meeting Ten until the afternoon.”

The first thing Renjun does when he gets home is to catch up on his sleep. Staying up late last night to binge-watch a Jaemin-recommended drama knowing he had a 7 am schedule was a bad idea. He just hopes he wakes up just in time for that meeting with his boss at the gallery. He’s cuddled warm in his blankets, lit his apple-scented incense, and had his blinds closed for his little nap. Renjun thinks it’s worth missing lunch.

Surely the nap helps his worn out body. When Renjun wakes three hours after, he is recharged. He takes a quick shower and makes himself look presentable but not too formal and goes out to grab something to eat before he’s off to his scheduled meeting.

The café across the street sounds enough to his grumbling stomach. Renjun stands by the café windows not long after, scanning the signboard for today’s special menu, when he spots a familiar figure seated at the ice cream parlor just next door. His brows rise. 

Jisung is happily lapping at his chocolate ice cream cone, seated properly on a chair that was too high for him on one of the outside tables of the parlor. His legs don’t reach the ground, and he sways it back and forth. From a few feet away from him, Renjun could hear Jisung hum to a nursery rhyme. 

Instantly, Renjun’s endeared self walks towards the boy. With a small pat on his back, Jisung turns to look at Renjun. His eyes immediately smile upon recognition, and behind his cone is a messy grin. Renjun takes the seat across him.

“Hi stranger.” Jisung waves at him. Renjun giggles at how cute he was, and because he definitely hadn’t introduced his name to Jisung since their first encounter.

“Hi, Jisung. My name is Renjun by the way.” Renjun smiles, then notices the smear of chocolate ice cream on Jisung’s chin and down in his pink shirt. “You’re a messy eater.”

Jisung tilts his head, eyes small but bright in wonder as he stares at Renjun, “It’s chocolate, Renjun.” Renjun could only laugh. Jisung was a bright kid, he was witty and smart. “And the sticker!” he exclaims. Renjun could not help but focus his attention to the small boy, “I put it on my wall just like you told me. Beside my bed.”

Renjun hums, “Well, did it help you sleep?”

“Yes! It looks like a bigger star! A star beside my bed!”

They giggle together after that. As Jisung continued to lap on his sweet treat, Renjun could not help but notice a thing. Did Jisung come here alone? “Where’s your dad, Jisungie?”

The boy stops to look at him innocently, before he pipes up, “My dad—”

“Hey, Sungie. I got you tissues—”

Renjun abruptly gets on his feet and meets Jeno’s annoyingly handsome face. Surely, Jeno held a bunch of tissues on his hand, and he wore a checkered flannel over a white shirt. There’s the stutter in Renjun’s chest again. He ignores it. 

But he definitely didn’t ignore the way Jeno looks good with simple clothes.

“Oh.” Renjun stutters out. Jisung’s dad was here of course. 

“Hi, Renjun.” Jeno greets back. He gave another one of his multimillionaire smiles Renjun might just melt right there. But he realizes he’s in Jeno’s spot before anything else. After that, he realizes that Jeno had remembered his name. 

“Hi!” Renjun squeaks. He steps away to let Jeno take his previous seat, but the latter only walks around the table to clean off the chocolate stain on Jisung’s chin and on his shirt while clicking his tongue playfully. Jisung might have known that Jeno was feigning his disappointment, because he only giggled and let himself be cleaned up. Renjun awkwardly stood there, watching the loving scene. The way Jeno took care of Jisung…if they weren’t father and son then no one would know what else they could be. Now, Renjun was sure of this. 

“Would you like to join us?” 

Renjun snaps back to reality and looks at Jeno, whose eyes are boring into him. He feels himself shaken at the way Jeno looks. Renjun didn’t take time to weigh options and immediately nodded, “Sure.”

Both Jisung and Jeno beam at him, which surprises Renjun because he didn’t think this through but they seemed to have expected him to say yes. When Renjun was about to go and fetch another chair for himself to sit on, Jeno beats him to it and does exactly that, prompting Renjun to take his previous seat. The blush gets prominent as he lowers himself to the chair, his neck heating up. Renjun tries his best to suppress the blush so that it doesn’t show on his face. 

Meeting with his boss be damned, Renjun knew what they were about to discuss anyway so he could afford to be late. He was going to spend time with Jeno over ice cream and Jisung to make friends. Yes, he wants to be friends with Jeno. At least friends.

°•°•°○○°•°•°•

Two days later, on Monday, Jisung came ringing his door at 8 AM. 

During the ice cream hangout, Jisung found out that Renjun lives in the apartment complex just across the street and particularly begged him to reveal his door number to the extent that Jeno didn’t dare stop him in case a tantrum happens. Of course, Renjun relents. He didn’t know how else to deal with Jisung’s puppy eyes. Then the discussion was dismissed after Jisung’s sudden squeal of what seemed like excitement. Renjun couldn’t ponder about it more.

But now, Renjun knew what it had meant. 

As soon as he opened the door, he was greeted with a sight of Jeno clad in a cardigan over a shirt paired with a sinful pair of ripped jeans—but that wasn’t the surprise, Renjun convinced himself. The surprise was Jisung in his kindergarten uniform, that one he wore when he had bumped into Renjun, with the same Iron Man backpack on his shoulders. Thankfully he was set to go, or else it would have been embarrassing. Jisung was grinning, almost bouncing on his toes. His one hand was held in Jeno’s and the other was waving his little fingers up at Renjun. 

Renjun could not hide his surprise at this. So Jeno decides to speak up, “I’m sorry. He wanted you to walk him to the daycare. I really couldn’t force him out of it but if you’re hurrying for work—”

“No, no,” Renjun cuts him off. “I have flexible working hours. Just—” Renjun gestures towards his apartment, “let me wear my shoes and lock the door. I was about to head out, anyway.” Renjun bends down to pinch Jisung’s cheek, “Then we’ll walk you to school, yeah?”

Because how was he supposed to decline a clingy kid, right? (And walking with an attractive man at 8 am was good exercise, even if he was looking haggard at such an hour in the morning.)

Jisung giggles and actually bounces on his feet. The excitement rubs off on the two adults and they laugh together. 

The walk wasn’t awkward. If Renjun was with Jeno alone then it would have been, but they were walking with Jisung between them. So it never got awkward, with the child practically skipping on his merry way, his right hand held by Renjun and the other by Jeno. Jisung wasn’t planning on letting go, he was chattering about how excited he was to get stars on his work for today at the daycare center. Renjun amuses him by listening intently and answering questions he would ask. It actually surprised him at how much a five-year old can talk this much. When voicing out this, Jeno had told him Jisung’s mother was the same. 

Right. They were a family. Suddenly Renjun felt like intruding, but he pushed the thought off and reminded himself that he was here as a friend. Not as a potential home wrecker.

Currently, Jisung suddenly loosens his grip on their hands and rushes to the gates of the daycare with a wave, “I’ll go inside now!”

Renjun smiles and returns the wave.

“Listen to teacher, okay?” Jeno says aloud before they watch Jisung finally go past the gates, taking off his shoes when he reaches the front door. When the boy finally gets inside the daycare is only when Jeno shifts to turn at Renjun. The latter blushes at the attention all over again, hopefully he doesn’t get caught.

“Well,” Renjun rubs his nape, “the gallery is on this road.” He gestured to the direction of the street where his workplace was located, “I should probably go.”

Jeno licks his lips and offers him a smile (Renjun thinks Jeno was made for smiling with how much he does that), before he nods and takes a step back, “Okay then. I’ll see you around?”

“Yeah. See you around, Jeno.” Renjun waves and turns on his heel towards his route just so that Jeno wouldn’t notice the furious blush on his face, which he blames Jeno for. How did he manage to look good at 8 am in the morning? 

On his first step, Renjun stops when Jeno calls him back in question. He turns back, raising a questioning eyebrow at the other. Renjun’s eyebrows almost shoot up to his hairline at the sight of Jeno sheepishly rubbing the back of his head, his eyes looking elsewhere but Renjun’s. Renjun’s mouth fall open to an ‘o’ because was Jeno still capable of being flustered? What did he think of that made him all shy and hesitant?

With a small gulp, Renjun decides to pry gently, “Yes?”

“Have you,” Jeno starts, his voice making Renjun’s skin prickle with anticipation, “thought about what plant to get yet? Since the last time you were at the shop you couldn’t decide on anything…”

_ Oh. _

Renjun blinks, willing himself to tell the other an answer that isn’t  _ ‘I didn’t decide on shit, I just wanted to get over your attractive face but that didn’t happen’ _ . What comes out of his mouth is, “Y-Yes! Yes. Actually, I might come by later?” It was an impulsive answer, because should he really spend his time there rather than going through his photographs? But Renjun was used to being impulsive, and he only hopes for the best to come out of this impulsiveness.

And that’s how he found himself hanging by the glass door of the shop after work. 

_ Huh,  _ Renjun thinks,  _ what a familiar scene _ .

Rather than debating whether to go inside and buy the damned plant or to run away with an excuse he still hasn’t thought of, Renjun was actually bracing himself for what was to come. Embarrassingly (even to himself), he’d been thinking of a way to greet Jeno on the way here, although he knew none will go according to his plans anyway. And that was proven right once again because Jisung is the first one to spot him, not Jeno. 

Jisung was propped on the same highchair behind the counter, obviously doing something with the way he was looking down at a sheet of paper, and beside him was Jeno with his face slightly hid behind the stems of flowers and leaves he was arranging into a bouquet. The young boy had snapped his head up, face instantly lighting up when he saw Renjun behind the door. Jisung disappears for a while when he jumps out of the highchair and his little legs run across the room to let Renjun in. 

Renjun intakes a deep pollen-scented breath, and smiles back. When he enters and the wind chime sounds, Jeno pauses his work to look up at the newcomer. Renjun gives him a small wave. 

“Renjun!” Jisung quickly hugs Renjun’s legs, to which Renjun laughed at. He ruffles Jisung’s hair and bends down to meet the boy’s bear hug.

“Did you miss me?”

“Yes.” Jisung breaks away with a pout, “I wanted to play with you.”

Renjun pinches the boy’s cheek, “Really?”

“Yeah, he did.” 

Renjun looks up to see Jeno hovering from a few steps away from them. He still wore the same clothes from this morning, only with an apron tied around his waist that covered the rips of his jeans on his thighs. Renjun stands straight, his palm held by Jisung, and returns the smile, “Good thing I came, then.”

A small gasp comes out of Jisung as he tugs Renjun’s arm, “Really? You’ll play with me?”

Jeno chuckles, “No, Sungie. He just—”

But Renjun beats him to it, “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

While Jisung squeals and laughs out of excitement, Renjun looks back at Jeno. He wore a questioning glance towards Renjun, his eyes worried and eyebrows lifted as if to ask whether he was sure of this or not. And Renjun nods, because Jisung wanted him there and because Renjun was slightly growing fond of the boy. Besides, he didn’t have much to do for today. So what’s a few hours to hang out with Jisung, right?

Jisung drags him to his highchair behind the counter of the shop. Renjun looks at the countertop, complimenting the boy on his drawing of a garden. Jisung drew flowers and scribbled a green crayon at the bottom of the sheet as grass, drew colorful butterflies and a sun at the top, “Today at school, the teacher taught us how to draw animals. I liked the butterflies the most!”

Renjun sets his camera bag in a corner, “It’s pretty, Jisung.”

Jeno gets behind his work once again, and continues the bouquet after shooting Renjun a grateful smile. Renjun heats up at the attention, and quickly invests all his attention to Jisung and his artwork. 

Because,  _ god _ , Jeno and flowers. The thought makes Renjun’s heart race in his chest uncomfortably.

Unintentionally, Jisung gets the memo of Renjun needing a distraction because he slips a clean sheet of bond paper on his area along with a few of his crayons, “Renjun, draw too! Let’s see who draws the cuter bunny.”

Renjun chuckles, “What’s the prize?”

“A prize?” Jisung looks up at him in wonder.

Renjun hums, tapping a crayon on his chin, “If it’s a competition then we need to have a prize for the winner, right?”

He internally coos at the way Jisung actually looks far away to ponder on his words, his eyebrows scrunched and his lips in a pout as he puts so much thought into it. The boy brightens up in a couple of seconds, and slaps his small palms together, “Ice cream!”

Renjun matches his excitement, “Okay then!”

In the end, Jeno served as their judge and Jisung gets the prize. Renjun calls it favoritism, but Jeno says it’s because Jisung’s bunny had bigger teeth and redder cheeks. Even so, he gets his own serving of ice cream from Jeno to make up for it. They close up the shop, and trudge their way to the ice cream parlor. Currently, they sit at the same table from before. Jisung sways his little legs back and forth again, and Renjun sits from across him again. The three of them drown in sugar and in Jisung’s rambles, and in the glowing yellow of the sunset. 

“Seriously?” Jeno gestures at Renjun’s cup of ice cream with a tilt of his chin, “Vanilla?”

“Hey!” Renjun bites, even though he was merely offended, “What’s wrong with vanilla?”

“Whatever, Plain Jane!” 

Renjun snaps to look at Jisung in disbelief, this time mildly offended at how the boy just giggled his way through the offending nickname. He turns to Jeno, who was the only one to blame. “You taught him that?!”

Jeno just laughs it off, “He learned!” Renjun doesn’t know if he should feel offended at the father and son for teaming up against him or if he should let himself drown at the sound of Jeno’s melodic laughter. 

Renjun just scoops his ice cream in a poor attempt of masking his giddiness, “You’re so lame.”

It’s after a few rounds of child-friendly table games that they decide to clean up and call for rest in their homes. Renjun places a wet kiss on Jisung’s cheek, as per his demand. 

And it’s after he waves at Jeno goodbye prior to crossing the street to his apartment complex that he remembers he hadn’t bought the plant he was supposed to buy today. 

°•°•°○○°•°•°•

“Yes! Yes, please.” Jeno runs a hand through his dark hair, letting his fingers tangle with the strands, “Thank you so much!”

Renjun goes back to tying the lace with a tight knot and passes it to Jisung, who gladly accepts it with both of his palms and begins to loop colorful beads to craft a bracelet. The boy is squinting his small eyes to ensure the lace goes right through the bead’s hole. Renjun has half the mind to do it for him, but decided against it. Jisung’s concentration shouldn’t be disturbed.

What should be disturbed though, is Jeno’s incessant sighs that can be heard from across the room. Renjun finds himself thinking that his stress deserves an intervention. So cautiously, as if Jeno was a thin thread being pulled apart it almost snaps, he grips his shoulder. “Is everything okay?”

The way Jeno slightly flinched at the touch made Renjun retract his arm, casting the taller an apologizing look. 

Jeno catches this and fumbles, “N-No! I mean—” he rubs his nape out of embarrassment. And Renjun should be endeared by how cute he looked, but he’s so worried he could not even have such thoughts, “yes. Everything’s fine, Renjun.”

No it wasn’t. 

Renjun visited the shop that afternoon because last time, Jisung had requested a particular day to play with him again. He had brought with him a few materials to teach the boy about making friendship bracelets, what he wasn’t prepared for was Jeno’s state: disheveled and the apron loosely tied around his waist rather than the tight and neat way he did. Few minutes into Jisung’s bracelet-making session is when Jeno starts the feud of phone calls with aggressive tones. Renjun didn’t dare listen to the conversation, straining his ear was too much of a distraction if he didn’t want Jisung in a tantrum. 

“Tell me,” he goes on, “so that I could help.”

Jeno blinks once then twice. Renjun does his best to show his best puppy eyes. He really did want to help. Aside from him feeling like a burden from coming to the shop very often now, Renjun knew that Jeno needed it and that he would appreciate it. 

After a few rushed heartbeats coming from Renjun’s chest, Jeno relents with a sigh. He nods and purses his lips, “It’s just—there’s a rushed order for six bouquets to be picked up tomorrow and I’ve only finished three. And then the deliveries are getting delayed because of something I don’t want to think about.”

Renjun hums, “Calm down, Jeno.” He rubs his shoulder in an attempt to soothe the tension in them, which may have worked because Renjun feels Jeno relax under his touch, “Tell me what I can do, yeah? I think I could help with arranging the bouquets.”

Jeno looks at him earnestly, puppy eyes shining, “That’s—That’s really great, Renjun.”

He only smiles back and settles behind the worktable where an unfinished bouquet is laid. Renjun eyes the identical ones sitting neatly at the counter, and began to figure out the flower arrangements. He doesn’t notice Jeno step beside him, until the latter softly grips on his wrist. As Renjun halts, the wild animal inside his ribcage fastens. 

“I’ll show you,” Jeno softly mutters, breath barely touching Renjun’s cheek from how close they came to be. Renjun, as if he was burned, retracts his arm as he opts to watch Jeno grab the shears and got to work. Jeno teaches him the right way to cut the stems, how to handle baby’s breath stems and how to wrap the bouquet step by step. By the time he’s done, Renjun is still distracted at the shining ring on Jeno’s finger. But he shakes that away from his mind and gets on to work with the few details he picked up from Jeno’s demonstration.

For one, Renjun isn’t completely clueless about flower arrangement. He likes to think he’d do it well if he only had a chance to try. So when Jeno backs away to the workroom (probably for another phone call with a customer to explain the delay), Renjun copies the flower arrangement. He placed the jasmines between the baby’s breath stems and put the single red rose at the center of it all. 

Jisung has resorted to sorting the beads by color instead, while Jeno has still yet emerged from the workroom. Renjun stays occupied with making the bouquets for the next few minutes. 

When the sunlight begins to peek through the window—Renjun almost through with the second bouquet he made—Jeno finally gets back to Renjun’s side, watching the smaller male work with his hands. Renjun folds the final crease of the wrap, and ties a cute fluffy satin ribbon at the center. He feels unusually proud of his work.

Renjun holds it up carefully as he turns to Jeno with a grin, “Did I do well?” At this, Jeno laughs, making Renjun grin wider. He takes the bouquet and sets it beside the finished ones. Before Renjun could look away, Jeno had already held his gaze.

It’s after a whistle of the wind that Renjun clears his thought to break the atmosphere, and fumbles for the shears again, “Uh—I still have to do the last one.”

Beside him, Jeno chuckles awkwardly. He steps back and rubs a hand against his nape, “Well—I’ll help you with it.”

Jeno grabs a sheet of wrapping paper and spreads it out, while Renjun starts to shear off excess stems and leaves. They do it silently, with only the sound of Jisung humming to a children’s song filling the shop. And Renjun would pay to get rid of the awkwardness that somehow settled between them. The more it lingered, the more Renjun aggressively cut off the thorns of the rose.

But Jeno just laughs it off from beside him as he says, “You’re going to prick yourself from the thorns if you do it like that.”

So Renjun  _ mentally  _ shuts himself up and brings himself to focus on the task at hand. Definitely not at Jeno’s warmth that comes from his shoulder.

When they’re done, Jisung is still surprisingly preoccupied with the beads, the boy humming to another tune of a different children’s song. Jeno brings the bouquets to the workroom, probably to keep them watered so the flowers wouldn’t wither on pickup. Renjun takes the initiative to clear the counter. He rolls back the unused wrapping sheets and ribbons, and returns the shears to the shelf it belonged to. But seeing the excess petals and leaves as he cleans up, Renjun makes an idea out of it. 

He gathers it onto his palms, and walks back to Jisung’s spot. Upon noticing him, Jisung immediately stops singing and turns to look at Renjun, who only smiles at him softly, “Jisungie, can you stay still for me?”

Without a drop of doubt, Jisung nods. Renjun giddily pours the petals on top of Jisung’s mop of dark hair, and makes a quick grab for his camera. Clueless, Jisung only blinks, but stays still as Renjun had requested him to. Renjun adjusts his lens, marveling at the way the petals stand out over the blackness of Jisung’s hair. “Smile big, Jisungie!”

Jisung giggles, his shoulders shook which made some of the petals fall on his chubby cheeks and nose. Renjun made sure to press the shutter to capture the adorable sight.

Renjun would have started a tickle fight right then, but the chime above the door rings a tinkling sound as it opens. 

Just in time, Jeno emerges from the workroom.

Renjun looks at the newcomer. It was a lady, hair blonde and cut in a short length with her lips red. She wore an office suit, leather handbag looped on her elbow. He stood up to bow and greet the customer, but Jisung beat him to it. Although in a surprising way.

Jisung had practically leaped off his seat, the petals on his head falling on the floor, and ran to the woman as he shrieks, “Mama!” 

Renjun stiffens in his place, blinking his disbelieving eyes. The way the woman opens her arms to let Jisung in tells him that this was true, and that the lady is Jisung’s mother indeed. And that she was—well, she’s probably Jeno’s—

“Hi!” Jeno greets, and takes four long strides towards the woman. Renjun gulps again at the way Jeno pulls her in for a side hug. “You’re early.”

The woman looks up to offer Jeno a grin, before kissing Jisung on his cheek. “How’s work going?” Renjun looks away, deciding that his fumbling fingers were a better sight to see. He hopes that they don’t pay a mind to him, invisibility can be of good use right now. But the barrier breaks when Jisung calls his name, the boy’s usually endearing excitement in his voice becoming a burden to Renjun. 

“Oh,” the lady gasps, putting Jisung down to grab a hold of his hand instead, “You must be Renjun!” 

Surprised at the idea of the unknown woman knowing of his existence, Renjun spares a look at Jeno who remained, his head bowed as he chuckled awkwardly. Renjun couldn’t do anything as the woman took a route beside him, holding out a hand that he didn’t have another choice but to shake with his own. 

She smiles at him, warm and beautiful. It made Renjun nervous for some reason. And embarrassed. “Thank you for being Jisung’s playmate. He talks a lot about you.”

“He’s, uh—” Jeno interrupts, “He helped me around, too.”

The woman gasps. Renjun only sheepishly nods with a timid smile. The chuckle that comes out of him sounded forced and awkward as he spoke, “It’s nothing, really—”

Instead, the woman grips his hand tighter, her smile turning bigger, “Thank you so much!” 

And Renjun thanks all the gods of perfect timing because the telephone from the workroom rings loud, and as Jeno excuses himself to take the call, the woman is dragged away by Jisung towards his sorted beads. But she turns to Renjun one last time, “I’m Yeeun, by the way. Jisung’s mother.”

“Nice to meet you,” Renjun croaks. 

“Renjun,” Jisung whines, “how do I make the bracelets again?”

Renjun chuckles, and settles Jisung on his high chair. Yeeun moves to stand on the other side of Jisung as Renjun cuts two lengths of laces fit for Jisung’s wrist. He hands one to Jisung, so that he could learn to do it himself. “You make a loop like this, then put the end through before you pull to tighten it.”

Jisung follows easily. 

As the boy gets busy with decorating the lace with beads, Yeeun looks at Renjun over Jisung’s head. She’s smiling, and Renjun could swear that it’s more like a teasing one, what with the glint in her eyes might say. “My brother talks about you as much as Jisung does, too.”

To this, Renjun is caught off guard. “Brother?”

Yeeun eagerly nods. “Jeno won’t admit to it, though.”

“Jeno?”

Suddenly, there’s a large mason pounding on both of his temples. Renjun grips the edge of the counter in an attempt to soothe it. His eyebrows crunch together unconsciously as Yeeun still continues to smile at him brightly. 

“Yes,” Yeeun laughs, “Jeno. My brother.”

Renjun splutters that he almost bends in half, “Jeno is your brother?” He couldn’t hide his disbelief, not when it took him weeks of hanging out with them thinking he was Jisung’s father. 

Yeeun must have felt his confusion, because her smile drops, “He didn’t tell you Jisung is his nephew?”

“No!” Renjun exclaims, but calms himself down so that he wouldn’t embarrass himself even more, “N-No, he  _ never  _ told me.”

Renjun is so, _so_ embarrassed to the point that he felt the need to escape the room, hide himself in a closet, or let the ground eat him whole. All this time, he’d thought Jeno was a parent when Jisung was actually his nephew. The confusion makes the picture blur, and Renjun tries to see it clearer. 

“Well,” Yeeun claps her hands together, “he  _ is  _ my brother  _ and _ he’s single!”

Renjun’s face burn so much that it crawls down on his neck uncomfortably, “That’s not—”

“Mama!” Jisung shrieks between them. The boy holds up a finished bracelet to Yeeun, “Look!”

“That’s so pretty, Sungie!”

Renjun couldn’t will his face to cool down, so he turns away to attend to whatever that needs to be attended (read: to distract himself from the thought of Jeno being single and  _ not  _ a parent), but deems it as a mistake because his foggy brain led him to bumping right into Jeno’s chest.

“Woah,” Jeno’s arms immediately fly around Renjun’s shoulders, “Are you okay?”

_ Nope. Definitely not. _

“I’m—yeah, I’m fine,” Renjun gulps, refusing to look up at Jeno, “Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“Guys,” Yeeun steps in, “Jisung and I are going to get ice cream.” She held Jisung in her arms, and stepped out from behind the counter. Yeeun goes in to kiss Jeno on the cheek, followed by Jisung doing so as well. Then before they go past the door, Yeeun looks back to send a teasing wink towards Renjun.

Renjun blinks, then flushes deep red again.

The whole shop goes quiet again. Jeno is the first one to step away. Renjun purses his lips together before he moves to clean up Jisung’s mess. After debating for a solid minute, he decides to speak up, despite nervously so, back still on Jeno and hands still busy over beads and laces, “Jisung is your nephew?”

From behind him, Jeno hums in agreement but abruptly stops reviewing the delivery schedule upon coming to a realization, “I didn’t tell you?”

Renjun immediately turns to him, “It’s fine! I never asked, anyway.” With that, he turns back again to continue packing up. Despite Renjun not being able to stomach the amount of embarrassment he has, he still managed to scoff and mutter under his breath, “And for days I thought you were his father.”

The words come past his lips before he could even think about it. As fast as he spoke, Renjun immediately halts as he realizes the hellhole he put himself into. Too late though, because Jeno hears every word of it.

“What?”

Renjun freezes. He could hear Jaemin’s evil laugh in his head, mocking him for being such a dumbass. But he didn’t even get the chance to say it was nothing, as Jeno laughs. This time, he laughs loud and long that when Renjun turns to look at him, his eyes are completely gone and he’s biting his lip to stifle the sound ineffectively. 

And Renjun would say that Jeno looks cute like this, but he’s too embarrassed to think about that.

Renjun stays burned on his spot, even until Jeno manages to calm himself down. “You thought Jisung was my son?”

“The both of you looked like family and then you had a ring so I thought you were—”

And Renjun should really shut his mouth when he’s uneasy.

“A ring?” Jeno questioned, this time he looks sincerely confused. 

As if it was possible, Renjun reddens even more and pointed at Jeno’s hand, “I-I saw a ring last time—”

“Renjun,” Jeno interrupts him with a chuckle. He lifts his hand, flashing the simple ring on his finger to him, “A wedding ring is worn on the left hand. I wear my ring on my right.”

Renjun would really like it if the world decides to end now.

Jeno isn’t wrong. Renjun stares at the ring wrapped around the finger of his right hand, eyes almost popping out in disbelief. Of all details he’d forgotten to notice, he never realized this? Renjun feels like his brain was soaked in a bucket of ice. Jaemin’s evil laugh in his head gets louder.

He stays rooted on his spot even when he blinks the haziness away. Renjun feels like the world has betrayed him, there was so much embarrassment in his system that his skin doesn’t stop burning. “I’m so stupid.”

Jeno breaks into a fit of giggles again, but Renjun shuts him up with a glare. He hoped Jeno would leave it at that, and then they could work in silence until Renjun had to leave, but Jeno chose not to do so instead. When Renjun turns back to finish packing up, Jeno speaks.

“Yeeun gets busy most of the time,” he starts, “So he makes me bring Jisung here since I could look after him while working.”

Renjun opts to hum as if he was immersed in their conversation and not at fleeing the scene right away. But he doesn’t reply and thankfully, Jeno doesn’t continue narrating either so they get work done in silence for a while. 

“So,” Eventually, Jeno breaks their awkward silence, “I’m going to close up early.”

Renjun snaps out of it and stumbles, “Oh! Yes, sure.” He goes to grab his belongings before he makes his way to the door, making sure he mumbles a soft ‘bye’ to Jeno without having to look at his face.

“Renjun.”

When his hand had already gripped the handle of the door about to push it open, Renjun looks back in question, “Yeah?” 

Jeno stands still in the middle of the room, hands coming up to rub his nape in (then again) an embarrassed manner. “Are you free on Saturday evening?”

°•°•°○○°•°•°•

Today, the breeze is warm and comforting. The streets are not too busy to the point of causing headaches, and the bustle of the city is accompanied by birds chirping over their heads. As much as there is sunlight were as much as there are clouds in the sky. The flowers bloom, creating bursts of colors from bushes and cherry blossoms. Spring always had been perfect.

Renjun grips Jisung’s hand tighter, knowing that the boy got too much energy from that chocolate drink they had earlier. The giggles that followed as they skip down the walkway towards the grassy patch of the park makes him feel lighter than he’d already felt. 

Jisung looks up at him, eyes pleading and lips already formed into a pout that he knows Renjun couldn’t refuse from, “Can I go see the ducks?”

Renjun ruffles his hair adoringly, “Okay, Sungie. But don’t get too close to the water.”

With that, Jisung’s hand slips out of his as the boy pads his way to the pond. Following Renjun, Jisung doesn’t get too close that would make him wet. 

Renjun smiles as he watches Jisung from a few feet away following the duck and her ducklings’ movement, waddling as he goes. He rolls his eyes, although affectionately, when he feels a presence of someone creeping behind him. A pair of lean arms comes with it, they wrap around Renjun’s small waist as easily as water slips through fingers.

“I can’t believe Jisung found a new favorite person.” Renjun could particularly hear Jeno’s pout.

Renjun playfully slaps his arm, eyes still on Jisung, “And you’re just jealous because you’re not his favorite anymore.”

“No,” Jeno shakes his head against Renjun’s shoulder, “I’m jealous because he’s taking you away from me.”

The accusation in Jeno’s voice makes Renjun laugh, and made him jokingly regret on why he agreed on that Saturday evening date weeks back, “Shut up, Lee Jeno.”

“Then—”

“No, I won’t shut you up like that.”

Despite his words, Renjun turns in Jeno’s arms, facing the taller with a bright smile. As if on instinct, his own hands fly around Jeno’s shoulders and he brings them closer. Their smiles mirror each other, breath mingling and their eyes locking secure. Jeno is the first one to lean in, and speaks in a teasing voice, “Oh really?”

Renjun scrunches his nose, “Yes, really. I won’t. Never.” But he’s leaning in too, anyway. Renjun was too weak to stray away from this, he was too soft not to meet Jeno halfway. He was too happy to not kiss Jeno in the middle of a grassy patch in their neighborhood’s park. 

Jisung shrieks in the background.

**Author's Note:**

> jisung saw the kiss or he slipped, idk as well ;(
> 
> first of all, thank you so much to our lovely admins for this fest <333 you guys are the best <333  
> to my dear prompter, your prompt is ADORABLE so i'm really sorry for this mess lmaooo i tried :((( but it's obv rushed bcos it IS :((( i had to rewrite it a lot hvsdfshdv but i had soooo much fun writing <333 so i hope y'all had fun reading as well <3333  
> kudos and comments are super appreciated <333
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/reonjeolmis)


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